Harvesting shallots

07/19/2012

Harvesting shallots

I'm thrilled with my shallot harvest--my first successful one, that is.  I had tried growing shallots in Normandie with poor results.  Last fall, I planted gray shallot bulbs in one of my raised beds in the Provence potager.  They sprouted before winter came, and in spring, they began to multiply, as evidenced by the increasingly wider tufts of foliage for each plant.

Shallots require a light-textured soil that is not too rich, and minimal irrigation.  Beginning 2-3 weeks before harvest, you shouldn't water them at all.  You should also pull the soil away from the developing clumps, presumably to give them more room to expand the girth of the bulbs.  I was unable to do this in my closely planted raised bed situation, yet I still had excellent results.  Perhaps my shallots would have been even bigger had I been able to pull the soil away from them.

Once a few of the outer leaves of the plants start to turn yellow, you're close to harvest time.  Within a week (water withheld), the plants should have the unmistakable aspect of going dormant.  Now is the moment to dig them up.  Don't wait for all the foliage to dry.

Shallots develop a lot like garlic, except that rather than all the bulbs being enclosed in a communal envelope like garlic, shallots form a clump that is easily broken into individual bulbs.

Use a fork to pry the clumps from the ground.  Then separate them into individual bulbs, shaking off the dirt as much as possible.  I then use a hose to wash the remaining soil from the bulbs.  After they're cleaned up, spread the bulbs out in a flat or wooden claie made for sprouting potatoes.  Now comes the most important part.  Place the flats of shallots directly in the hot sun to cure for 2-3 days.  This step is essential to drying and hardening their papery envelopes and enhancing their keeping qualities.  Regular shallots will assume a golden red color during this curing period, while gray shallots develop their characteristic hard, gray shell.

When their foliage is dry and the bulbs well-cured, your shallots are ready to be stored in a cool, dark place.  You can either leave them in their flats, tie them into bunches, or braid them into tresses as you would garlic or onions.

I would say that one of the biggest differences between my cooking back when I was in the U.S. and here in France is that here, I use shallots almost every day.  Their inimicable perfume is at the heart of good French cooking, and I could no longer do without them.  I'm delighted to have a generous supply of my own homegrown shallots for the year ahead!

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